Telstra, the Australian telecommunications company, has appointed Suzanne Aitken as the new Group Owner of IT Strategy and Transformation. Aitken joins Telstra from Digital Victoria, a startup within the Victorian government, where she previously served as Chief of Strategy and Operations. She brings extensive leadership experience in digital strategy development and execution, making her well-suited to lead Telstra’s IT transformation and culture change program.
Aitken is the second executive to depart Digital Victoria in recent weeks. The organization, created to centralize and simplify the Victorian government’s IT services, also saw its inaugural CEO, Michael McNamara, leave to head up technology, digital, and data at Australia Post. Both Aitken and McNamara were formerly with Services Australia before joining Digital Victoria.
Telstra’s Group Executive of Product and Technology, Kim Krogh Andersen, announced Aitken’s appointment in a LinkedIn post. In addition to Aitken, Cheryl Davis was appointed as the Group Owner of Sales and Commerce Engineering. Davis brings her experience from AWS, where she served as the Director of Customer Engineering for the Asia Pacific and Japan region, as well as her tenure with EMC and VMware.
Both Aitken and Davis will be part of the software engineering and IT leadership team at Telstra, led by Kieran O’Meara, within the broader Product and Technology team. A Telstra spokesperson confirmed the appointments, emphasizing their roles in achieving the company’s digital leadership objectives.
